Excursion (4)

'Cybra, track all its movements.' Ryan instructed his system in his mind. 'Already on it master.' His system AI responded immediately.

A sudden flood of information was inputted into Ryan's mind. He could identify the weak points of the monster as well as predict its movements.

That was Ryan's gift: System. It provided a system screen that showed his current status, injuries as well as his current mana capacity.

Along with it, Ryan was given a super-intelligent system AI to assist him in various capabilities. 

In terms of combat power, it provided none. But the support-based capabilities more than made up for it. Also, as a benefit of his gift, he was given an extremely high affinity for all magic types.

Ryan cast 'Light Rays' at the aberrant. The attacks landed on the aberrant who was caught off guard, but the damage dealt was limited. Ryan chose to specialise in light-based spells due to their speed and versatility. But currently, even with his high affinity for magic, his current power was limited.

But his purpose wasn't to hurt the aberrant. It was to distract it. The thornback panther slowed down.

Jeanne followed up by creating several spikes out of the ground, piercing through the hide of the aberrant. The aberrant howled in anger as went to target the one who injured it.

Jeanne didn't engage in close combat and just avoided it. Multiple thorns were shot out at high speeds, but it was easily dodged.

The more thorns shot out, the more conservative the aberrant was about firing them. The aberrant only had a limited number of thorns on its back. The weakness was mitigated because the thorns grew back within a day.

But it was faster than Jeanne and was catching up. But she was unconcerned, wearing a casual expression on her face.

As the enraged aberrant was about to attack Jeanne, several blasts of mana hit it in the face. Arlo was standing on a tree behind Jeanne, holding a smoking gun. He drained his most mana in those two shots, barely keeping a layer to protect him from the fog.

Though the attacks left no serious wounds, the impact knocked it backwards. The aberrant tried to get up again, but the same pressure it experienced before kept it down.

It was Tobias Gravontide using his inherited gift. The gift was called Gravitation. It did want it said. It allowed the user to manipulate gravity fields. Tobias had increased the gravity around the aberrant threefold. 

Jeanne and Ryan pelted the fallen creatures with boulders and magic respectively. With Tobias' gravity increasing the force of the boulders, the aberrant's injuries were piling up.

But it wasn't a grade 3 aberrant for no reason. Though it only had defences comparable to grade 4 aberrants, it was high-class grade 4s it was being compared to. In a desperate manoeuvre, it released a flood of dark mana.

Just as mana cancelled out dark mana, dark mana did the same for regular mana. Both Tobias' gravity and Ryan's magic were disrupted.

Jeanne's attacks still worked as she used physical objects, but her control over the earth weakened by a significant margin.

Following the initial attack, all of its thorns were shot out in all directions. Most of them missed, hitting trees and other plants. But the ones that went towards Diamond 1 were hard to dodge.

Jeanne expended a great deal of mana of mana to protect everyone. The earth wall was nearly half a metre thick, yet the thorns managed to pierce through most of the defence.

The aberrant on the other side was without its thorns and trying to run away. It shed its thorns to create a distraction and reduce weight. But expelling dark mana had taken a toll on its stamina. And the attacks of Jeanne and Ryan had been specifically targeting the legs.

"You think we'd let you?" Jeanne wore an evil smile on her face. "Fiona, are you ready?"

"Yeah, I didn't think it was this hard to charge up," Fiona responded, with beads of sweat rolling down her forehead. "The fog hinders my abilities more than I thought."

She was concentrating on forming a magic circle, infusing it with a substantial amount of mana. The concentration of mana was so high, that it was purifying all the fog in a 10-metre radius.

When Fiona was ready, Jeanne opened a gap in the wall. The aberrant ran over 50 metres in the forest, which was in Fiona's detection range.

It hadn't been able to move away much since it crippled. It hid behind the trees thinking it was safe.

"Setting coordinates. Creating path." Fiona muttered to herself. "Ionizing air. Creating potential difference."

The aberrant felt something tag him. Its instincts warned him of a potential danger. Unfortunately, it was too slow to react.

"Electrical Torrent!" Fiona shouted the name of the magic.

Travelling at 1/3 the speed of light, a ray of lightning was created and delivered to the target. It left a blindly bright trail. It sounded as if a hundred jets were taking off simultaneously.

The electrical energy surged through the body of the aberrant. It was killed instantly, becoming as charred as charcoal.

It was the strongest attack the group could produce. In terms of attack potency, it was comparable to what an ace could output. Granted it was only comparable to a casual attack of aces, but reaching that level was beyond impressive.

Fiona should not have been able to produce such a powerful attack, especially with her current mana capacity. But it was possible due to her gift. Solar Battery allowed her to store solar energy and convert it into mana to use whenever needed.

She processed the highest attack power of the year due to this ability. And it was the reason why she was given the rank 2 spot instead of Tobias, despite the lower potential.

Using the spell Electrical Torrent also required a lot of skill. Electricity was extremely hard to control, so most users preferred electromagnetism to accelerate metal objects at high speeds.

Electric Torrent requires the user to create a conductive mana pathway that the electricity could flow through, similar to power lines.

It was a spell that was hard to land, but when it did, it left devasting damage. Unlike a laser beam, it would destroy the entire body on its way to reach the ground state.

The attack drained Fiona of her excess stores and left her drained mentally. She wouldn't be able to pull off an attack like that till she got a full 8 hours of sleep, even if she had the mana for it.

Luckily for the group, the excursion only lasted half an hour more. Diamond 1 walked back to the entrance of the forest, with most of the members satisfied with their process.